Interview With R S Pateman

After reading The Second Life Of Amy Archer I was so excited to be able to ask the author a few questions about the book and the writing process. Here’s what we chatted about…1. The Second Life of Amy Archer touches on multiple different ideas and beliefs. If you could describe it in three words, which would you choose?Intriguing. Unusual. Debateable. 2. Reading the Author Note in the back of the book, you explain how the idea formed in your mind after watching Crimewatch. Did the rest of the story come naturally or did you find you had to work hard to tell this story?Both! I don’t plan when I write. I’ve found if I plot too much I start to doubt and question, eventually grinding to a halt before I’ve even got going. Once I’m underway, it’s harder to abandon as I’ve invested time and effort. Plus, the plot begins to evolve as the characters do. It makes for a chaotic writing process but it also makes it more of an adventure for me, and hopefully, the reader. Needless to say, it means lots of backtracking and editing and rethinking so although the story came naturally it also took hard work to get it into shape.3. This novel is told from the perspective of a mother. Being a man, did you find it easy to write a female protagonist?I didn’t even question that the book would be from a woman’s perspective. It had to be – although at first I wrote from the point of view of the other main female character, Libby, rather than Amy’s mother. It didn’t strike me as odd or problematic for a man to write a female viewpoint – it felt like my natural voice! Perhaps this is because I grew up in a children’s home run by my parents – the staff and the residents were female so I was immersed in a female world. When the team at Orion first read the book on submission, they were all convinced it was written by a woman. That amazed me – it just makes me wonder now if I can write a convincing heterosexual male point of view!4. Why did you decide on the name Amy Archer?Like everything else in the book it just came along. I’ve always liked the name Esme so needed something that sounded similar without being too close. Amy fitted the bill. The surname I grabbed from someone I used to work with. This somewhat random process gave me a character whose Christian and surnames began with an ‘A’, which in turn led me to Amy being an ‘A’ student with parents who expected her to succeed.5. The ending of this book was somewhat open to interpretation and left me wanting more! Did you set out to write an ambiguous ending or did that happen naturally?Does that mean you liked the ending or not?!!! The ending tends to divide people. Some love the ambiguity. Others are frustrated by it. I have heard that one reader threw the book across the room when she finished it! It won’t come as any surprise to learn that I didn’t set out to write an ambiguous ending. Yet again, it just evolved that way. As I wrote the book, I was never sure myself if Esme was who she said she was – I hoped it would become clearer as I went along. It didn’t. I still don’t know. Which means the ending is as open to me as it is to everybody else. And that’s great…and frustrating.6. Do you have any tips for aspiring authors? Yes. Don’t read tips for aspiring authors! I read so many and they always seemed to contradict one another. And as for rules for writing…I used to end up in knots of doubt. But, if you push me, I’d say to finish whatever you start. Having too many half-stories gets demoralising so eventually it’s easier and more comfortable not to start at all. And get some objective, critical feedback from other people who are serious about their writing; a writing group provides essential feedback – and maintains momentum. Keep going is a useful mantra both for writing and in the quest for an agent.7. Can we expect another book from you in the future?It’s already done – fingers crossed! The Prophecy of Bees will be out in 2014. A mother’s battle to pull her troubled teenage daughter back from the brink falls foul of sixteenth century witchcraft, superstition and murder.Quick Fire Questions: Quick fire? Ha! These took longer to answer than the others – too many options.What is your:favourite colour? a reddy, pinky purple – like a bruise on the skin of the devilfavourite song?aargh, too many to choose but as a mantra, ‘Don’t Quit’ by Caron Wheeler (ex Soul II Soul)favourite book ?whatever is next on my ‘To Be Read’ pilefavourite word ?boofavourite food?anything cooked by someone other than mefavourite season ?all of them but, at a push, springfavourite tv show?right now, The Returned. Always, Coronation Street.favourite author?ugh, you’re killing me here… Tracey Thorn (ex Everything but the Girl). Her prose, lyrics and tweets are fantastically well done.favourite animal?dogfavourite day of the week?today

Huge thanks to RS Pateman for his time!

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